European Stocks Resume Winning Ways

By

Sara Sjolin And

Andrea Tryphonides

Updated Jan. 29, 2013 3:31 p.m. ET

Oil firms helped lead European stocks higher on Tuesday, as oil prices topped $97 a barrel for the first time since mid-September, while encouraging German consumer-confidence data and solid U.S. earnings reports also lifted sentiment.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index added 0.3% to close at 290.30 after snapping a three-day winning streak on Monday.

"The markets have had a good run for a couple of months, but I think the euro area still has more problems. Markets need to remember that a lot of the euro-area countries are in recession and that will have an impact on company earnings," said John Redwood, chief of the investment committee at Evercore Pan-Asset.

U.S. blue chips headed toward a five-year high as Pfizer topped earnings expectations and investors shrugged off sluggish consumer-confidence data.

In late-afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 75 points, or 0.6%, atto 13958. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose eight points, or 0.5%, to 1508, while the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped a point, or 0.03%, to 3153 amid weakness in technology shares.

An 8.3% rise in Valero Energy, the world's largest independent refiner, was fueled by a surge in fourth-quarter earnings.

As U.S. stocks marched higher, Treasurys prices retreated from early gains.

Adding to the woes was the sale of $35 billion in five-year notes that drew softer demand than many had expected. The U.S. paid 0.889% to sell the notes, the highest in nine months. Notably, the direct bid, a category that includes U.S. mutual funds, was 16.7%, down from 30.4% in December and below the average of 18.1% for the past four sales. For the day, the benchmark 10-year note fell 4/32 in price, yielding 1.988%.

Miners were strong in Europe as base and precious metal prices moved higher, with the latter helped especially by dollar weakness. The Stoxx 600 basic resources index gained 1.7%.

Anglo American jumped 3%, helping the U.K.'s FTSE 100 to its first close above 6300 since May 19, 2008, gaining 0.7% to 6339.19. It was also its fifth consecutive finish in positive territory.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group was notably under pressure, dropping 6% as U.S. authorities push for criminal charges over interest-rate-rigging allegations.

Germany's DAX added 0.2% to 7848.57 and France's CAC-40 ticked up 0.1% to 3785.82. In Frankfurt, ThyssenKrupp rose 2.7%, while in Paris Total gained 1.6%.

Elsewhere, Royal Philips Electronics posted one of the biggest gains in the pan-European index, up, 2.3%, after the Dutch firm said it expects sales to pick up in the second half of the year.

In currency trading, the British pound recovered against the dollar, trading at $1.5761 late Tuesday in New York from $1.5694 late Monday. The euro fetched $1.3493 versus $1.3455.

Among commodities, light, sweet, crude oil for March delivery rose $1.13, or 1.2%, to $97.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures on the Comex division gained $8.30, or 0.5%, to $1,660.70 a troy ounce.

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